Teacher Bytes

I just got though watching the Nintendo presentation at the E3 Expo and came away with two thoughts. First, Nintendo might have read my previous blog post about the possibilities of the Nintendo DS becoming an educational tool. Company officials talked about the various uses outside of gaming such as looking up airline information at airports, keeping track of baseball scores and ordering food at Safeco Field in Seattle. It was further intimated that Nintendo was doing a variety of tests to see what a DS could do.

The other announcement that intrigued me was Wii Music. This game allows four people to play a choice of 50 instruments to make music easily. The demonstration had Nintendo officials jamming to the theme of Super Mario. Unlike Guitar Hero or Rock Band, Wii Music allows players to have more control over their music by using the Wiimote to play an instrument. The software takes advantage of the balance board to help play drums. Finally, one player can play a song with different instruments then combine the effort to make a music video of a virtual one-man-band.

Wii Music might become a useful tool for music teachers to introduce students to making their own music then gradually move up to real instruments. Who knows, you might see a group of students playing in a Wii Music band on some parent night in the near future.

According to rumors spread by Engadget, PC World, and other sites there may be a new Nintendo DS for teachers to start collecting from students this coming school year. Speculation is an unveiling will take place this week at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles. Some sites have hinted the new DS will be thinner by taking out the slot for Gameboy Advanced Games. Other speculations is that it will have music and video capabilites. All I know is that my family is postponing a trip so my son can see the Nintendo news conference on Tuesday to see what is in store for the next year and I now believe the DS could become a welcome device in schools.

In the past I have touted the Sony PSP as a device that, with some modifications, would make an excellent educational device. Sadly, Sony is still not seeing the potential of the PSP as it has been relegated to the back in favor of Blue Ray and the Play Station 3. Nintendo and its gaming design affiliates have impressed me over the last few months withs its efforts by producing educational related-software. In Japan, Nintendo is aggressively marketing the devices to adults with various brain-stimulating games such as Brain Age and language tutors. This is carrying over to the United States as well. Who knows, the recently released Guitar Hero On Tour might inspire students to play musical instruments.

How could the DS become the educational device I thought the PSP could become? It will need some modifications for this to happen. First, the device would have to be able to play audio and video media, which I think it can already do. The problem would be memory which could be solved by adding a SD card slot. Nintendo already uses SD cards with its Wii gaming system. Second, Nintendo should not eliminate the GBA slot, something I don’t think they are going to do anyway. Guitar Hero On Tour and My Weight Loss Coach use the slot as an I/O device. Why could the same slot not be used for a keyboard? This means Nintendo would have to create word processing software or build in a web browser into the device’s operating system so it could use online apps like Google Docs. The stylus and handwriting recognition does a pretty good job too of creating text. Speaking of the stylus, an e-book reader would be a natural for the DS. Readers could use the stylus to make notes and highlight text. There are probably other modifications that could be put on this wish list so feel free to add them with your comments.

Nintendo has signaled it wants its DS gaming system to do more than just play games with software that is aimed at teaching and games that could be considered edutainment. The DS could become an educational platform of the future if Nintendo added better web browsing, text imput, audio/video media, and book reader capabilities to the device. Plus the DS is cheap and already in the hands of kids all over. Can you imagine hearing teachers telling students “Get out your DS” as they start a school day in the near future?

For those of you who has been reading this blog for the last few months you know that I taught Web Media Productions to a group of 6th graders. The semester is over, the grades are in, equipment packed away, and I have taken time to reflect on how the experiment went. As I look back and look ahead, I have come to this conclusion: it was a successful failure.

To recap, in January my principal asked if I could take one class of 6th graders and do something with the various technologies I have been advocating for the past year and a half. The class would be using blogs, podcasats, wikis, video, and other Web 2.0 tools to complete a variety of assignments. These assignments included school news and in work in each student’s academic classes. My purpose was to demonstrate to teachers and administration how technology could be integrated into everyday assignments and no computer labs would be necessary.

Here are the things I liked:

• The students enthusiastically worked with the technology. Other teachers who observed my students told me they were impressed at how much pride the students took in doing their work. Very few times did I have to discipline a student. There were three students who failed the course but even they did very well when they did their assignments. Also, these students were having troubles in other classes as well.
• Students took ownership in the course and quickly realized their work was out for everyone to see. Some took longer than others but got the point when I was constantly commenting on writing skills, spelling, punctuation, etc…. It started driving home the point their ELA classes mattered. There was also one funny time when one of the students got a response back on her blog from someone outside of school. It scared her. In another incident, a student e-mailed me that there was some inappropriate content attached to one of our videos on YouTube and wanted to know if I could take it down. He was proud of the work he and his classmates had done and did not want it ruined if it could be helped.
• Students realized they were an equal partner in the class. When one of the students taught me how to do something on the blog he later told me that was the first he felt what he knew was important. He when scared when he taught me what I needed to know but bought into the class when he realized I listened to him as a student should listen to a teacher. It was the first time it had ever happened to him. The students worked as a team to solve problems. However, I would send other students to help answer questions and sometimes I let them work it out on their own.

Here are some of the things I did not like:

• Not all of the teachers participated or cooperated. Even after I explained what I was planning on doing more than a few would not help with sharing computers. Even though teachers shared what they were doing in class and gave feedback on my ideas, almost all of them did not follow-up on work students did for their classes. One even got annoyed when she was asked to allow students to do a survey so graphs could be generated, the unit she was on at the time.
• Only two teachers asked how I did something or asked the students to explain what how they did an assignment. Sad considering this was an exercise in showing what the possibilities are.
• While administration was supportive and gave me a free hand to run the course as I saw fit, they only saw half of what the course was about. They loved the videos that were produced. So good the principal has assigned me to do this class on a full-time basis. The idea was for the teachers to see how to do things not me do it for them. In other words, in spite of trying to teach everyone how to fish, now I will be called on to video things in other classes instead of the teachers doing it themselves. This is why I call it a successful failure.

Things I would do differently:

• Say no! At least it sounds good but I loved my students.
• Have a couple of days where we would do nothing but sign up for the accounts needed.
• Make wikis the first assignment so students would have a better overall portfolio platform.
• Work more with audio podcasts but I am sure there will be pressure to get videos out.
• Make sure to have an individual video project so every student would have to demonstrate basic videoing skills before moving on to other tasks.

I am now in the process of designing what I like to call the Multimedia Activity Center or MAC for short (goes well with McCracken Middle School). As this summer project moves forward I will be blogging about that adventure. Don’t worry, I will also be blogging about technology integration as well. It is going to be a busy time.

There is a new book I plan on reading in the near future entitled The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future by Mark Bauerlein, an English Professor at Emory University. The author purportedly claims a generation of our young people (anyone under 30) are so busy with technology they are not reading, not engaging in civic issues, and do not have a solid work ethic. This is the opposite of an enlightenment expected with the coming of technology. This is from the review on Amazon.com. I will withhold judgment until I have read the book.

A blog post by Stefanie Olsen on CNET’s News.com has some evidence that might poke holes in Professor Bauerlein’s research. Some Silicon Valley teens gathered together at the Teens in Tech confab to share how they are using technology to start businesses and do charitable work. Here are a few examples of what some participants have accomplished. Anshal Samar, 14, has invented the fantasy-chemistry education card game Elementeo and hopes to sell 50,000 sets and is well on his way to becoming a millionaire before entering high school. There is also Sejal Hathi, 16, who founded Girls Helping Girls, a nonprofit group hoping to inspire young women around the world to bring social change in their communities. So much for no work ethic or civic responsibility.

What technology are these teens using? Facebook because of its better layout and professional look. They still prefer e-mail but have not caught on to Twitter. All of the participants worry about their privacy and take steps to protect it. While the participants admitted to not being able to read as much as they would like outside of school related materials, they did say they kept up with news online. One thing they do regret is the fact they don’t have as much time to build personal relationships because of their work or use of Facebook or other social networking sites but understand personal relationships are important.

Ms. Olsen does point something out that makes me wonder if Professor Bauerlein’s book may be premature. The attitudes about using technology responsibly is coming from parents. Silicon Valley is one of the technology centers of the world so its inhabitants are probably very tech savvy. This knowledge of how things work on the Internet is passed on to their children. In other words, responsible adults who understand how technology works are taking time to instruct their children properly and it works. The cover of the book says not to trust anyone under 30 (funny coming from someone who proably said not to trust anyone over thirty once upon a time) but when I read Professor Bauerlein’s book it would not surprise me that he makes another argument supporting the idea of the Technology Natives/Technology Immigrants divide.

The other day our Spanish Language liaison e-mailed the parents of one of my Web Media Productions students wanted to have a conference with me. This was not surprising because the young lady, an honor student in other classes, got off to a rocky start. Seems she had a hard time adjusting to the fact that all work was being done online. I thought this would be one of those conferences where I would have to explain and justify everything that is going on in class. Frankly, I am surprised that I have not had more conferences like this given the nature of the course. It also concerned me that we would have to work through a translator given the family was from Mexico. Things get lost in translation.

When the conference started I explained to the parents why their daughter got low grades on her report card. The biggest problem was she missed several assignments. The young lady started the course late and had to play catch-up with an assigned peer tutor. I also explained the work that was missed before she entered the class was not counting against her. Fortunately I had some good news too. After seeing her report card, the young lady realized she was going to have to get to work like any other class. She has never missed an assignment since and is taking the lead on several projects. Definitely a candidate for most improved. Another observation I shared with the parents was the girl was a bit shy and unsure of herself at the beginning. Now she is more outgoing and confident in how she handles herself. She now attempts to work with applications like Voice Thread by herself first before asking for help and readily goes before the camera.
The parents listened and were pleased to hear their daughter was making gains in the class.

Then came the shocker. They told me their daughter has been showing them her work and explaining how she does it. This so pleased and interested the parents they purchased a computer and Flip video camcorder so she may continue using the tools learned in my class with future other classes. They also liked the idea of sharing things such as video with extended family in Mexico. The parents thanked me for teaching new ways to learn with their daughter and I hoped I could teach her more in the future. I never get tired of hearing I have made a difference in someone’s life.

There is a moment that is almost every teacher’s nightmare. That moment that has sweat pouring from the forehead like a golf course’s watering system. That moment when the heart rate rises faster than a rocket. That moment teachers dread: a question from a student you cannot answer. Some teachers handle this moment better than others, deftly deflecting the inquiry with a subtle changing of the subject. Other teachers resort to the “sit down and be quiet” card. The problem is that teachers who must maintain order in a class and feel they must be the dispensers of all knowledge, cannot know everything because the information is growing too fast.

This moment happened to me today when Stephanie asked what I thought was an easy question: how do you embed a YouTube video into Edublogs? Easy, until I realize that Edublog does not work like Blogger which I have more experience with. All you had to do was just highlight, copy, and paste the embedded HTML code from YouTube into the HTML of your blog post and you have embedded video. Easy, except I found out it does not work that way in Edublogs. I tried everything I could think of to no avail. Nothing like failing to do something with a 6th grader eagerly looking up to you to give her knowledge. Don’t I look like the fool.

To call what came next a rescue would be debatable by some teachers. Another student, Zach, spoke up and told me he had embedded a YouTube video into his blog. He calmly explained that he clicked the yellow button on the tool bar on the Write Post page. He further went to tell me about how he copied and pasted the video’s URL into the box that opens by clicking on the yellow button. I tried it and despite every instinct telling me otherwise, it worked (Cathy Nelson you can stop snickering now). Zach actually looked sheepish when his tip worked. Obviously he was unsure how I would take the fact that he knew something his all-powerful teacher did not know. I just smiled and thanked Zach for doing a good job for teaching me something. I further explained that part of the class was for use to learn from each other and that he would be expected to teach teachers how to do some of the things we are learning in our class. The smile on his face showed it all.

The lesson to be learned  is that teachers should not be afraid to admit they don’t know something, especially with technology. With the Digital Native – Digital Immigrant divide we are going to have to realize we can and have to learn from each other. With an unpredictable future, the ability for students to learn things on their own and then teach us what they learn will actually help them be successful.